The year of Saunders
by GLORIA CONEHEAD SPACE MARINE
Summary: Saunders. One of the wealthiest high schools with rich funding for it's tankery team. However, despite it's wealth, Saunders has yet to win a tournament in at least ten years. Fortunately for the reputation of Saunders as a tankery team, the commander, Jennifer West is intent on changing that. OC characters, taking place after the events of Girls Und Panzer. WARNING: MALE OCs ahead
1. Chapter 1

The storage for tanks in Saunders was always an excellently well maintained area, which indeed, wasn't any different from the rest of the school. The brightly lit room was spotless from the constant maintenance of the volunteer students, who took great pride in keeping the place cleaned up. Every tank was arranged in order, Light Tanks, Medium Tanks, Heavy Tanks and Tank Destroyers. If one really wanted to see all the tanks that Saunders had in it's arsenal, it may be advisable to anyone taking a tour to grab a bicycle or a golf cart to save themselves some walking distance.

"Let's see. Only three weeks until the match." The Commander said to herself and partially to her executive officer who was positioned upon the desk, checking off every last detail. "We have the tanks. But like usual, if it's not all freshmen crewing them, we don't even have enough people interested to crew them all!"

"You want me to do something about it?" The second-in-command asked while making check-marks. Saunders was known for always having the most tanks in any match. The issue was, out of every school, their potential for crew was the highest as usual. Unfortunately, the ratio for potential candidates and the number of people who ACTUALLY decided to sign up never was at it's fullest. Even though Pravda had about 1/3 of the same funding as Saunders, it had no problem filling every slot to the point where sometimes, getting on the tankery team had to be done through tryouts, or at one year, a LOTTERY due to all the skilled and eager candidates. It wasn't surprising that some tanks in the massive Saunders garage had a tendency to gather up dust.

"Well, what do you think? We have literally more funding then EVERY single school combined. I am not kidding about that by the way. But anyways, MORE than every other school. And yet, we are probably the only school that can't even fill up all the slots!"

"Doesn't help that we haven't even made it to the semi-finals in five years straight." The second-in-command, or the Captain commented. "Most people who join are greenhorns, find out that the team isn't too stellar, and then leave the next year. If I am getting this right, the amount of people whom actually signed up for tankery have DECREASED over the years."

"That's a problem don't you think? Now I know it's the job of those recruiter's the club has hired, but... you know..."

"Jenn, we are NOT crossing that line."

"I haven't even said it yet..."

The boy stood up and adjusted his tie for a moment as he looked at his CO and good friend. For rather obvious reasons, the young man didn't wear the same school uniforms as everyone else. Because of that, he chose the alternative of a grey two-piece suit everyday with match sweatpants and a red tie to go with the overall school uniform colors. From top to bottom, one would find it a great challenge to even find a singular detail with his appearance. Professionalism was the first notability. When compared to Jennifer, Steven also had another trait. Height. At 6' 1', he cut an imposing figure when paired next to the girls he went to school with. Throw in the fact that his arms were twice the size of Jenn's, it looked like a night and day comparison when the two posed for a picture together. Speaking of pictures...

"You're going to ask me, to pose shirtless in front of one of the tanks, and probably doing some ridiculous."

"Okay. You read my mind."

"You asked me to do this last season. There's no way..."

"Oh come on Steve. You got some nice abs."

"Great. I don't need five thousand other people looking at them!"

"And your arms are like the size of the 120mm!"

"And I am not FLEXING on some school newspaper ad."

"Please Steve?"

"Jenn. You know, most girls get jealous when um... you know, their guy takes his shirt off to show other girls. Why don't you?"

"Oh come on now. You're mine and all, but hey, I can blow my horn every now and then can't I? What an awesome darling I can spend time with after school?"

"Jenn. You do realize my sister is a Freshman? And the last thing I need is for her to see me shirtless on a school ad."

"Well... what about plan B?"

"Plan B... we did that two years ago. Maybe ten extra people signed up because of it."

"Well, that's a difference right there!"

"Look. I am not putting on a freaking Captain America costume so that we can convince ten people to join the team."

"Come on Steve, don't you want to win? It'd be better with more players. Players aren't hard to come by."

"Well, dignity is something that is." Steve sighed as he finished checking off the list. "Look. Why don't we just petition the principal to give us some more of those T29s? We almost made it the semi-finals because we had two of them last season."

"Already tried. Until we show her that we made some vast improvement, she isn't willing to pay that much money for some pretty expensive tanks. Now then, I need as much slots to be filled as possible. If everything else fails, can you do the ad? Or at least the rally?"

"I'll think about it." Steve sighed as he got up. "Which one is less humiliating."

"Oh come on. What's humiliating? The fact we're advertising you as the second best commander here in Saunders?"

"No, because I don't show random people my body. It's weird... why the hell do women even want to that anyways? I never quite understood."

"Well, the alternative is the Captain America costume..."

"Again, I am thinking on it. We have dinner with my sister remember?"

"Oh my god, I almost forgot! Let's go!"

* * *

><p>When the Freshmen, (Or Fresh Meat as some students joked) moved into the dorms, it was always terrifying. For them at least. Most of the older students really couldn't care less that the old guard had now gone off to college, and that the emptied rooms were now filled with younger and typically louder kids who had yet to mature. Steve on the other hand, had quite a few reasons to care as he passed through the hallway. Plenty of girls lined them, and many of them were quite surprised at the presence of a boy who made his way down. The older students simply walked by him with a simple greeting, the type that would be given to an acquaintance of many years, the new ones were quite confused with whether or not he was a teacher who was awfully young, or somehow a girl who had begun to grow a thin line of facial hair. The older kids would point out that Steven's mother was a teacher here at Saunders, and for the sake of convenience, had enrolled her son here. A few would joke that Steven was simply gender confused.<p>

"Cara!" Steve called with a smile at the sight of the girl with the ponytail and the purple backpack. "There you are! Good first day eh?"

"It was great!" Cara replied as she walked the halls with her brother to the many food-courts and restaurants at Saunders. Because of the new work shifts that their mother had, it was rare for them to actually see her now unless it was the weekend. Instead the plan was, Steve would simply spend the evening with his sister rather than his mother. No objections from the brother, who loved his sister quite dearly.

"Teachers nice?"

"Yeah! Mr. Dixon is pretty awesome."

"Best physics teacher ever." Steve smiled as he passed through the many stares from younger students. "Alright, I am starved. Food?"

"Food." Cara grinned as the pair made their way down to one of Saunders' many eateries. The pair sat themselves down, before exchanging how their days went. For Steve, it was average. It was his last year here, and he was preparing for college. Having a nigh-perfect GPA would mean good things for him, throw in his electives and the fact he was a man who had arms that were wider than a Tiger's 88 meant that he had a lot of options. Of course, college was still a year away, and right now, he wanted to focus on the present. Like his little sister for one.

"So, last year?"

"Last year."

"What college you want to go to?"

"I am thinking West Point or MIT. Maybe Princeton or Georgetown."

"Aiming high?"

"Aiming high." Steve nodded as the food came here. Passing by him was a crowd of upperclassmen who watched the young man chat with his sister. One of the girls, a rather vivacious young lady winked at Steve who pretended not to notice as Jenn approached them.

"Oh Cara. Meet Jenn." Steve introduced as the two shook hands. "We've been... hanging out for some time. Three years?"

"Three and a half." Jenn smiled. "So... you're Cara huh?"

"Yes ma'am! And you... you're the commander of the tankery team?"

"You bet. Steve here is my XO. Heh. XO. Get it?"

"Yes. And your chief-pencil pusher, delivery boy, pizza fetcher, loader, counter, and other boring errands guy." Steve joked.

"Hey. I had to taste your cooking one day. You think you have it bad?" Jenn laughed. "But no seriously, it was terrible."

"Gee thanks. That's why you cook."

"We're in the same dorm by the way." Jenn smiled. "Good thing I am good at convincing your brother to pitch in for chores."

"I am remembering it the other way around Jenn." Steve shrugged almost apathetically as he took out a small notebook. "Let's see here now... practice next week... and I assembly tomorrow on why people should sign up for tankery."

"So... Captain America or Poster?"

"NEITHER."

"Well fine. But like I said, I am gonna make you do one of them if the assembly doesn't work."

"Great." Steve sighed as the food arrived.

* * *

><p><em>Tankery! A part of our culture with a long history! Enjoyed by girls from many nations all throughout the world. A strong but delicate art that aims to make girls and women alike more polite, more graceful, more modest and more gallant! Both on and off the battlefield!<em>

The usual short film regarding tankery was shown every single year usually within the first week of any school year after the new girls had arrived. Upon the stage was Steve, Jenn and the rest of the tankery commanders. Every commander of her individual tank a first sergeant or if they happened to have been the even more outstanding individuals, they were second lieutenants,first lieutenants or even captains. The exception currently was held by two people. Jennifer West held the same uniform as a colonel, while Steven Roberts held the title as the team's major, or as some of the more traditional girls called, the "first captain".

As usual, Steve would always be flanking his CO at all times and much to his dismay, he found himself facing the Freshman side of the auditorium. Maybe one reason why these rallies weren't successful in attracting new recruits was that they were all too busy watching Steve rather than what the extra-curricular activity had to offer. Granted, especially when the film always spoke of girls and women... while here was a big guy sitting in a Major's uniform and sitting right next to the head of the tankery team. Or maybe it was because he was the male student in the entire school. Whatever the cause, it meant that this rally is going to get nothing through the heads of those who needed to be watching this.

When the film ended, a time of temporary bliss for Steven, there was always that few second pause before Jenn stood up to tell everyone about the Q and A session. Commonly the usual, with things like asking how flexible a schedule did the activity have or how much extra credit was being offered. Then came THAT question.

"You. In the back..." Jenn called as she pointed to the freshman with her hand piercing the sky.

After much studdering, stammering and some overall nonsense, the question was asked. Was the... person... in the Major's outfit a man?

* * *

><p>"Well, that rally was EXCELLENT." Steve rasped sarcastically as he hung up his uniform in the closet. "The moment you answer "yes" about my gender, the whole thing somehow changes from Tankery to questions about whether or not I am gender-confused."<p>

"Happens way too often." Jenn sighed as she took off her uniform and her undershirt. "Look. I know how you feel about it."

"Yeah. I don't like posing shirtless on a magazine. I am fine seeing you that way when we're alone though."

"Oh you..." Jenn giggled as she finished undressing herself, leaving her undergarments on. "Steve, the principal isn't even going to CONSIDER giving us those T29s, Super Pershings or any of the better tanks if we can't even fill up HALF the slots."

"The funny thing is, that still gives us at least a six tank handicap over pravda."

"Well yeah. But how many GOOD tankers are there on the team? Everyone literally does a single year and then does some other extra-curricular activity so they can pad their college resume. Does no one even know that colleges like seeing dedication?"

"Humph. You know, I was sort of afraid of people thinking I was... um... not you know."

"Well, I am certain that was before you and I met." Jenn grinned as she ducked under the bed sheets. "But that aside Steve, how are we going to get people to sign up? For once, I want to win one of these seasons. Besides, that'll help with my resume as well."

"Well... it's not too late as of now. Not all the new kids arrived yet. Heard there's another wave of them coming in, in two days."

"Look. I need this done ASAP."

"Okay. Okay. I'll do it." Steve sighed as he imagined himself with a pair of aviators and in his bathing suit while flexing on a Pershing. Maybe the Captain America show thing wasn't so bad, if the costume wasn't so ridiculous. "My question is, what if this fails?"

"Backup-backup plan." Jenn sighed as she pictured her boyfriend in the Captain America costume. First chance she got, they were going to need something a lot better looking. Turning off the light, Jenn sank into her pillow and next to Steve. In the darkness of the room, she found herself embracing him in the night as the two drifted off into peaceful slumber.


	2. Chapter 2

"So. How exactly do I get to look like a total dweeb in front of the entire school?" Steve asked as he followed Jenn after class. Day 2, and still attracting plenty of eye balls. With luck, this sort of attention will die within the week, and with that, he probably wouldn't have to put up with it for the rest of the year, and therefore, not ever again within his life. Or maybe until he tells someone he did Tankery as an extra-curricular activity.

"Well Steve, we decided on everything. What you're going to be wearing for one."

"So, essentially what I am NOT going to be wearing. Me with my shirt off right? And let me guess, flexing?"

"Spot on."

"Yay. What do I get to pose on? The Sherman? The Pershing? THE T34?"

"I was hoping that what you get to pose on might actually make you feel somewhat better." Jenn said with uncertainty as the pair walked into the Saunders' botany garden. "Now, it took the combined efforts of the engineering classes and the mechanic teams so we better make this a good picture. It's by the artificial waterfall."

"What is it?" Steven asked as he took a look at the pavement, recalling how in previous years, the sheer weight of the T34 had actually left marks down there. Surprisingly, there was none to be had. Inwardly, he mused if Jenn decided on the Sherman, which was the most abundant and the most iconic tank of Saunders, but for some reason, he had other feelings. Jenn always was one of the people who grasped upon the idea of "bigger being better". Taking the turn was the girls with cameras waiting just for them, with a good portion of the tankery team who wanted to see a guy with his shirt off. For once in his entire life time, Steve perhaps would not even notice the fact that he was attracting some heavy mounts of attention. His own eyes were focused elsewhere.

When one walked inside the depot that held all the tanks within Saunders vast arsenal, the first sight anyone was greeted to was the M1A2 Abrams that had not been in working order. Evidently, that had now been changed with the fact that there wasn't much evidence anyone grabbed a crane to move the thing.

"Well..." Steve began as he looked at the beauty. The M1A2 Abrams was a fine tank. 62 tons and armed with 120 mm Rheinmetall cannon. It was a beast that could turn any armor on the planet into tissue paper with a gun like that. Throw in the composite armor and it was like a fortress of steel protection. "Wow. I like it. I really do."

"We're all glad you do!" One of the girls smiled as she took a look at Steve. "Okay. Where is the camera girl? She should have been here long ago."

"Ah, give her time. She's one of the Freshman, so she probably is trying to find her way around." Someone else commented. "So... are you gonna..."

"Please do not tell me you all came here to see me with my shirt off."

"Just ignore them steve." Jenn sighed as her boyfriend began to take off his grey overcoat and left in a patch of grass. Afterwards, he took off his tie and left it on the overcoat, before going over to unbutton the rest of his dress shirt. With all eyes on him.

Taking Jenn's advice, he quickly unbuttoned the shirt which revealed the well muscled form Steve carried under his coat. Taking his shirt, he tossed it to Jenn who held onto it for the time being. The last time he did this, someone had actually stolen his shirt much to his Chagrin. Didn't help that it was the middle of autumn, and that he had to borrow Jenn's sweater which was pink and had kittens sewn on it. Right now, being autumn, it was quite chilly, so he did his best not to look like he was freezing.

"So... where's the cameragirl?" Steve asked after a rather long pause.

"Be patient. Here's the shades." Jenn said as she handed him the sunglasses which if Steve had to be honest, were actually quite good looking. "Alright. Practice. Smile!"

Despite his rather awful circumstances, Steve gave a stretch of his lips and a small breath to make his ab muscles even more defined. Despite getting nods of approvals from everybody, Steve only looked to Jenn who was busy walking over and taking various examinations from different angles. Moving over, she verbally told Steve to adjust every last bit of his limbs until it was the way she liked it, which was then she gave a smile.

"Oh, and to the left a bit more." Jenn replied as the sounds of talking approached. "Camera crew is here. Smile Steve!"

Sitting up more upright, the young man gave his best smile despite his currently rather uncomfortable situation. The only problem was, his smile completely vanished the moment he saw who the camera girl happened to be. The facepalm matched his sister's general reaction.

"St..steve?" Cara asked as she blushed deeply at the sight of her brother with his shirt off.

"Oh... god... why...?"

* * *

><p>"And that failed." Jenn sighed as she sat down with the tankery team's planning board around the table, throwing at them the pictures that were taken. "You know, you should have told me it was Steve's SISTER who had to take a picture of him posing with his shirt off!"<p>

"Well, we still got the picture!"

"You kidding me? He even LOOKS uncomfortable." Jenn replied as she took a look at the picture of Steve without his shirt.

"Probably cause it's just cold out. It is the middle of autumn."

"Or maybe, he's super uncomfortable? Look. We all know this wasn't my idea, why you people thought it was a good one, I don't even know. But we need another plan. Who is going to join tankery when our ad in the school paper is a guy standing awkwardly on an Abrams? Sure the tank looks cool, but the guy posing looks like he's going to throw up."

"Well... Jenn... you know our other idea was to have Steve dress up as Captain America..."

"He hates that costume beyond belief. You thought he was uncomfortable having his sister take a picture of him with his shirt off? He'll be a million times more uncomfortable when he's in that ridiculous get-up. I talked to him. There's no way in hell he's going to be appearing in front of a few thousand people in that... thing."

"Jenn... look... you're the boss here. You got any ideas? Because right now, those are our only options. You even said yourself you liked the ideas just before the season was announced."

"That was before I asked Steve's opinion and took a look at how he actually felt when having to go around having his shirt off." Jenn sighed. "Look, we all know that we all care about winning the tournament, and we all know that getting people to sign up is step one. But we can't do this at the expense of Steve. We might as well as be renting him to make money."

"That sounded really wrong." One of the other members of the planning board giggled. "But seriously, what can we do? Our team hasn't even won in ten years, we need to come up more than just a twenty five word ad or another pep rally. We need something big. And we need it now."

"Can you AT LEAST make the Captain America costume not looked stupid?! Make it ACTUALLY make Steve feel like he's a superhero?"

"He has the same initials as Captain America! And the same first name!"

"Goddamn it Melissa. I need something good, not just nonsense!"

"Okay, okay! Sheesh. I'll try. Oh... by the way Jenn... new students are coming in today. Last wave of the fresh meat. You may wanna check them out to see if they're interested in tankery."

"When do they arrive?"

"By my watch? Umm... fifteen minutes."

"Melissa. New people. Flyers. NOW."

"On it boss!"

* * *

><p>There were many reasons to why someone needed to be in an all-girls school. Sometimes, in the case of Steven who had both parents working at the place, it was for the sake of convenience, better to have their entire family in one place despite the small pockets of oddity Steve would end up having to deal with on a day to day basis. To be fair, Steve never minded this too much. He had made many good friends over the year, though none of them would ever be as good as Jennifer West. At this current moment, Steve was on top of his "personal" tank. The T30 which had been painted red, white and blue. It was by all means, quite a new tank. When purchased, the thought would be that Saunders would actually get a chance to use the tank. Since Saunders had never yet made it to the finals in many years, it seemed as though the chance for seeing the T30 in action was something most students would never get to see. Jenn was one who wished to see that changed.<p>

Typical of the American engineering. The T30 was a monstrous tank with it's 155 mm cannon that made the thickest armors appear to be tissue paper. Though Saunders never actually had used the tank in an actual tournament due to certain rules in place, scrims with other schools had shown to anyone on the team that the T30 was more than capable of turning their most well-armored tanks into soup in moments.

Steve never quite understood why Jenn wanted him to use the tank so badly. Freshman year, he was the loader to one of the M4s. Sophomore year was when Saunders made it to round two. Instead of loading for the M4, which many of the girls commonly joked that he loaded faster than they could shoot, he gunned for one of the pershings, and it was then that the team found out Steve was almost as good as shooting as he was loading. That was about it, as the boy's driving skills were totally atrocious and perhaps the reason that they lost that year was because the command had told Steve she wanted him driving the Pershing. This ended with said tank getting shelled in nearly all directions.

It was until Junior year, when Steve's job on the tank team got placed as one of the commanders. Like his job as a loader and a gunner, Steve took this job quite well, scoring two knock-outs in round one, and another two again in round two. For all anyone knew, he could have been considered for the commander's position if Jenn didn't totally steal his thunder by almost winning the second round. No one ever knew how a M4A3E8 could somehow take on four Pz. IV Hs, but it sure as heck happened. And to top it all off, the M3A3E8 came out on top. It was only from Kuromorimine's Tiger I that was fielded in the match, did the "Crazy 8" finally bite the dust. That was also unfortunately, the winning shot of the game.

Having used the M4 and M4A3E8 quite commonly, Steve never quite understood why Jenn was so hard on him going on to use the T29s, the T34s or the T30 so much when he was one who inherently was more used to the smaller tanks. But she was the boss, and like most things, when he put his mind to it, he got quite good at whatever it was he was doing. He soon mastered the tricks of the heavy tanks, knowing that the American's tended to armor their turrets well, but only had mediocre armor for "down below" on the hull. It soon became a common trick for the boy to use every last crater, piece of rubble or even building to hide his hull armor so that everyone had to deal with the almost impenetrable turret, which many girls jokingly referred to as "being made of vibranium". The joke may never have stuck, had Steve never dressed up as Captain America for Halloween junior year, and that grew to be his new nickname all around the school. Captain America.

"So Jenn. New kids arrive today right?" Steve asked as the massive turret on his tank turned to the targets. About 500 meters away, the wooden tank sat, just ready to be blown to splinters.

"Yeah. Hopefully we can get some people to sign up." Jenn replied as she straightened her jacket. "You know, I was wondering how many girls from New York arrive."

"Why New York?"

"They seem to be the ones most interested in Tankery. You're from New York. I am also from New York."

"What... how does that... we're literally two people."

"Nevermind. You gonna take the shot?"

"Yeah." Steve nodded as he gave the hand signals to the gunner. The turret turned once more. "Give it your best."

The loud rumble tore a hole in the air as the shell traveled out. The explosion leaving a crater in the midst of where the wooden tank had once sat. Inside, Jenn did a little dance at the warm fuzzy feeling of getting to hear the T30's gun. Spectacular to the core.

"Now imagine that monster when we get to use it."

"We only get to use it at the finals."

"Good. So that's why we'll make it to the finals." Jenn replied as she motioned her driver to take a shot at the wooden target next to the one Steve had sent to kingdom come. "Let's practice girls. Hit that target while we're moving."

"Speaking of practice, I am going to see the new people. More people means I don't have to dress up in a terrible costume now does it?" Steve asked with a slight grin.


	3. Chapter 3

_Tankery! A part of our culture with a long history! Enjoyed by girls from many nations all throughout the world. A strong but delicate art that aims to make girls and women alike more polite, more graceful, more modest and more gallant! Both on and off the battlefield! _

"Since that is true. Why the hell do you want ME to hear about it?" The senior asked back to Steven as the pair of them sat down to eat lunch at the café. "And really? Steve? This is the best greeting I get after meeting a friend I haven't seen in three years? "Do you want to join the Tankery team?" Not a how-was-your-trip? Or a good-to-see-you-again?"

"Jenn said it was urgent." Steve replied as he sat down casually and folded the loincloth over his suit. "Look, I do tankery."

"And I am certain you got a lot of shit over whether or not you rocked a different way."

"Until they found out I am dormmates with Jenn. Yes." Steve replied as he ate with his friend. "Alright Brad, seriously. Come on, we all knew you used to do tankery in middle school."

"Well first off, I didn't do it by choice. My older sister always dragged me along because it was torment-your-little-brother-by-making-him-do-tankery week. Which was about every week."

"I am sure you had FUN at least right? I've kept in touch with Angela, and she tells me you had actually gotten quite good at pretty much anything there is to be good at with the M4."

"Maybe. But I still don't see what's the point of me signing up." Brad continued as he took a bite into his sandwich, noting carefully to the extremely high number of glancing heads that came in the direction of him and Steve. "Looks like we're the black sheep."

"Just to the Freshmen and the new kids." Steve replied. "Anyways, back to the point."

"This food is good. Much better than what they gave us back in my old school. Couldn't stand that slop."

"Brad."

"What?"

"Stop changing the subject."

"Why is there a need to change the subject?" Brad asked as he finished eating. "I've already made up my mind."

* * *

><p>"So... how's the new kids?" Jenn asked as Steve came back from his lunch.<p>

"Terrible." Steve replied as he rolled his eyes.

"You hear about that new guy? Brad Collier? You two should talk. I know it must have been be awkward to be the only guy on this entire ship that's under the age of 18."

"Already did. We go way back." Steve said with an eye roll. "Humph."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It's just... unlike him."

"What?"

"Nothing. I wanted to see if he may have been interested in tankery."

"Really? You know that you aren't the first guy to do tankery. It's just that many boys get self-conscious when asked to play."

"And a few others are afraid to do so because they're afraid of being called out upon it. Yeah. I know." Steve sighed remembering all the times homophobia had been slung into his direction, even though he was interested in the other gender contrary to the belief of a few close-minded individuals. "Tankery's been such a... "girl" thing for so long, it's just odd for many people to see a guy willingly hop into a tank unless he's out to go screw around with a friend."

"Yeah. So I guess Brad doesn't like tankery because he's the self-conscious type?"

"No... no... not at all." Steve said as the memories came coming back to him. "Actually... I found it kinda weird that he said no. It sucks really, because he used to play with his older sister and they used to have a lot of fun together. They'd do nothing but tankery together for the entire summer, and I heard that Brad got really good at just about anything regarding the M4A3E8. Now if he's just self-conscious about how he's going to look, I am not judging him. He's got his reasons."

"Well you know me. I don't care if you're a guy or a girl. As long as we have a team and a good one, I'll be happy."

"Well speaking of which, you know we got practice in two hours right?"

"I was the one who organized that you dingus." Jenn said as her eyes narrowed. "And you know what you get to do?"

"Take the M18 hellcat. Drive as fast as I can and then be target dummy for all the newbies. Yes. Thank you SO much for giving such a GLORIOUS function I can perform today! Just as awesome as me being your pencil-pusher, pizza-fetcher, pack-mule, soda-grabber and all those other things."

"Can we also throw in snuggle buddy?"

It was things like this that Jenn said that made all the above listed things become even enjoyable to a sense.

* * *

><p>Saunders was the 2nd largest primarily girl's school that was afloat, and the largest that did tankery. Every single year, the amount of tanks Saunders could potentially deploy was usually always higher than every other team. Normally even higher than if some teams were stacked together. Last year for example, if Saunders made it to the finals, it may have been able to use three times the amount of tanks Kuromorimine had in TOTAL. Unfortunately, being left back at the beginner rounds, where only a certain portion of the entire tankery team could be deployed (Limit 15 tanks in round one, limit of one heavy tank or at most a 2:1 ratio, which ever number was lower.) that was when Saunders found itself being hurt. It didn't help that sometimes, Saunders ended up facing extremely skilled teams in the earlier matches where the limits imposed meant that the full extent of the large arsenal within the school could not be used. This became especially apparent last year, when Kuromorimine had eliminated Saunders, where it was the efforts of "Crazy 8" and "Captain America" that pretty much carried the team. If however, Saunders hadn't met Kuromorimine until the last round, then things may have turned out far differently when all things considered, Saunders have over 200 tanks in total as opposed to Kuromorimine's 75(Again, debatable since even the newcomers in Kuromorimine tended to be quite skilled, and that the good portion of Saunders' armory took up of lighter and less heavy hitting tanks as opposed to the plethora of heavies that Kuromorimine was quite famous for).<p>

Skill. That was such an important factor, many people have forgotten it. Saunders had a tendency of forgetting this. No matter how many super-pershings or T29s the school had, it wasn't going to matter if the gunners couldn't even hit a target that was less than 300 meters away. Kuromorimine was one of those schools referred to as "Tank schools" which were the ones that were heavily dedicated around tankery. For a tank school, many would wonder how Kuromorimine could even compare when Pravda or Saunders both had several times the funding, tanks and manpower that Kuromorimine had. The answer was simple. Skill. No other school was half as good as Kuromorimine in that department unless it was St. Glorianna who were well known for the girls' can-do attitude and the copious amounts of training that went with it.

Right now. Steven was rather concerned when it came to the skill department. Five M4s were having trouble hitting ONE M18. To really make things worse... this was under 500 meters. OF ALL THE OTHER TANKS. To make things absolutely terrible, Steve was the only one in the hellcat. Not even a spotter.

"You know Jenn, unless the rule somehow changes so that we can grab fifteen pershings in round one, I think it's going to be that year where we lose out on the first round." Steve radioed while he drove. He couldn't even tell what was going on behind him, and he had quite some difficulty when it came to his flanks, yet just SOMEHOW... SOMEHOW even though he was the worst driver ever, no one had managed to hit him.

"And this is why we're teaching the scrubs." Jenn replied back as she watched Steve drive behind a mound. Through her binoculars, she would find herself many times silently cursing the new tank crews over having literally non-existent skills. It was like many of them have never been in a tank in their entire lives! Actually... that was probably true. She went back to Steve, turning her head the moment someone else decided it was time to come onto the field.

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><p>"Jenn. This is awful." Steve commented as he saw a shot fly over his head. "They can't even hit the broadside of a barn door."<p>

"No kidding? It's like none of these people have ever been in a..."

BOOM*.

She stopped talking and took off her headset. Turning to the hellcat, she saw the white flag pop straight out. She heard radio chatter, which caused her to put it right back on. The boisterous and joyful voice of a young man called to Steve.

"Plugged one right your ass Steve!"

"I call bullshit, Brad!"

"Fine then! We go again!" Brad called as he looked at the former gunner of the tank, a freshman called Lyla Gordons. "Learn something darling."

"That... that was a nice shot."

"First try. I'll plug one in his ass again." Brad commented as Steve grabbed another hellcat. "Okay. So. You start driving round like a maniac for ten seconds, then I start shooting."

"Come get me!"

Steve really regretted saying that. Because Brad plugged one right in the other hellcat on his first try. Even though it was less than 600 meters away, it was nevertheless quite impressive to manage to hit the fastest tank ever produced on anyone's first try.

"Alright girls. Learn something from good ol' wardaddy." Brad grinned as he went out of his tank and coming face to face to Jenn. "So you the woman in charge?"

"Yep... wait a minute... didn't you say you weren't interested?"

"I told Steve I already made up my mind. Never told him it was a yes or no. But this team looks like it could use a hand."

"No kidding." Jenn muttered underneath her breath.

"Count me in."

"Sweet." Jenn grinned as Steve made his way over.

"So you sneaky bastard. You in?"

"I am in!" Brad said with a highfive to an old friend.

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><p><strong>If you seen the movie "Fury", you probably got the couple of references.<strong>

**Brad Collier ****-**

** Don Collier: "Wardaddy", the tank commander in the movie. **

**Brad Pitt: Actor for Don Collier **

**The tank "Fury" is also an M4A3E8.**

**So a few things I am considering:  
>Have Brad put "Fury" on his tank. <strong>

**Perhaps maybe ONE MORE male OC (or not, I am up for suggestions. Or more, again suggestions.)**

**Now I know the numbers of the tanks when said above probably was pretty damn high. Over 200 tanks probably means something like the reenactment of a major battle during Operation: Die Wacht Am Rhine. What I really did try for is to give each country an accurate representation of the economy at the current time of the second world war. (This is why Pravda does not have the most tanks even though Russia produced the most). **

**And as many of you have probably noticed, there are plenty of experimental tanks within Saunders' armory. I really did consider this, but since Kuromorimine got a Maus, I think it'd be at least fair to give Saunders a few T29s and a T30. Now what we can probably tell is what I am setting up is to be a whole showdown between Kuromorimine and Saunders. Which leaves the question. The battles between. Because I want to put in the major schools (If Saunders faced Anzio... I am pretty sure this will end in a major curbstomp), I am thinking of the order... to which... I need suggestions! **


End file.
